Infinitesimal
by Aryd
Summary: Public affairs guy for District 10 hiding a prawn in his house? No, not good enough. A prawn and a prawn egg? Better...


"Ey, Dan!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin, I'd been slouched over my keyboard, glaring at the monitor, and hadn't seen Ganiah walk in. I'm not even sure I'd have seen him if I wasn't sucked up in my annoyingly uneventful typing, he was native to South Africa, so his dark skin would've easily hid him in the darkness of the office.

"Jesus Christ! Don't scare me like that!"

He shrugged, pulling up a chair and plopping down next to me, looking at my screen. "You wouldn't be scared if you weren't here. So, why are you?"

Ganiah worked the public affairs night shift, so I normally didn't see him. However, on occasions like the one I was currently in, where I stayed late, I usually got to talk with him for roughly an hour, normally less, before I'd finish up and head home.

I glanced back at the monitor, and opened my mouth to say something, but Ganiah beat me to it. "That's an apology letter. What happened?"

I groaned, knowing all too well what happened, the memory of it sickened me. "Reporter decided to be an ass. Went into the dining tent, started to talk about how the research team was trying to make an alternative for the cat food. Decided to pick up a canister of the stuff." I glanced over and Ganiah, who was staring intently at me. "The mistake lies in the fact that one of the prawns was about to have it for lunch. And then the reporter was on all over the ground."

Ganiah recoiled. "Yikes. The reporters always fuck up, don't they?"

"Just be glad you don't have to see it, friend." I finished up the letter, and began to print it out. I heard the printer's mechanisms come to life across the room. "Well, it's good for you that you got here so late, if you arrived any earlier, I would've made you do the apology letter." He chuckled at this.

"I keep telling the Head of Security that we need to stop letting them in, but he keeps feeding me the bullshit about how we need to show that District 10 isn't a concentration camp. And apparently, the best way to do that is by taking pictures of the damn prisoners."

Ganiah had already gone to retrieve the letter. "I'll go ahead and file this thing in. Same place as usual?" I nodded. "Got it, see you later man."

"Stay safe man." I finished getting my stuff together, and was about to walk out the door, when he spoke up. "What is this shit about how 'The non-human involved is being profoundly reprimanded'?"

I rolled my eyes, waved my hands in a small arc in front of my face, and said in a sarcastic voice, "The non-human has recently vacated this plane of existence!" Ganiah laughed, and I smirked. "See you around."

I stepped out into the hall, and walked down it until came to the double doors at the end. I pushed them open, and strode into the concrete-coated area, vastly different, from the carpeted, and rather nice area I had just left. I stepped into the large elevator, and came out on the first floor, walking until I got to the main doors. I glanced at the rather pudgy guard who manned the doors, who met my gaze, and pressed a button on his keyboard, muttering "See you Monday, Mr. Horrace." The large steel doors slowly groaned open, and I stepped through, glancing at the bright light illuminating the parking area. I got into my car, a silver minivan, which came with the job, and drove out of the parking lot, and through the security toll booth. My eyes drooped, tired. I now began the worst part of the job: the long drive home. It was nice in the aspect that there was nobody on the road, and I could drive as fast as I wanted, but the sense of isolation as I drove back towards Johannesburg was almost crushing.

I was about an hour into the drive when I started to smell it. I tried to ignore it at first, thinking that it was just a place I was driving by, but the smell stuck around, and got stronger. I tried glancing in my rear view mirror, but saw nothing, it must've been behind the back row of seats, which I always kept up, for some reason. I had to check when I was about 20 minutes from the city, to see what it was, the smell was beginning to unnerve me. I stopped the car, confident that there'd be no other cars coming for a while. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped outside, it was cold and windy, and my dress shirt was being pelted with grains of sand. I pushed through the tall grass, which was up to my knees, and went to the back of the van. I pulled up on the handle, and opened the rear door.

I immediately regretted this decision. I don't know how long I stood there, in utter shock, but I couldn't bring myself to look away. Laying down in the back of the van was a dark green prawn. I could see my own fear reflected in his amber eyes. He was holding something in his left hand, it appeared to be oval in shape, but I could see small ridges and indentations. It almost looked like it had ribs. I slowly closed the door, with the prawn still inside. I then backed away slowly from the van, fumbling around in my pockets for my phone. My eyes were so widen I thought they might fall out. I pulled out my phone, and turned it on, not breaking eye contact with the van. I saw the van's back door open, and the prawn crawled out, raising his arms in a sort of signal for me to calm down, though it did no good. I don't know why I pulled out my phone to begin with, it was probably just my fear, but as soon as I tried to call the MNU helpline, my phone notified me that I didn't have any reception. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere, with this thing.

The prawn clicked at me anxiously _"I need a place to hide." _I slipped my phone back into my pocket, not breaking eye contact. It was mandatory for anyone working at District 10 to be able to understand the prawns, and though nobody never really talked to them unless it was absolutely necessary, I always thought it was neat, to say the least.

"H…hey, pal… Y…Y-you shouldn't be this far from the facility." I was lucky I could get out a sentence that actually made sense, I legitimately thought I might die.

The alien stared at me, for a while, seeming to be trying to figure out what to say. Then it spoke, in an almost threatening tone. _"You will take me away from there."_

"W-why would you want that? I mean, you'd b… be alone. And vulnerable, I mean, anyone could report you." I immediately regretted saying this last sentence. The prawn's eye's widened for a split second, then glared at me.

_"Give me the device." _

"What device?"

_"The device in your pocket. Give it to me."_

"It's just my… my…" The prawn stepped closer to me, "Okay! Okay, you can have it!" I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and held it out. The prawn edged closer to me, and an idea popped into my head. Well, not a very good one. I threw the phone. It distracted him for a moment, but it would never have been enough. I raced towards the van, only to be pinned to it by the alien. It snarled at me, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I weakly muttered, "Sorry…" but it didn't really help the situation.

He clicked at me, sounded incredibly pissed off. _"You let me hide in your home."_

I stared at him, shocked. "What!? Why my home?"

_"I must make sure you don't tell."_

"I… I'd rather not…"

The prawn tightened his grip. _"You don't have a choice."_

"But… Can't you-"

_"No!"_ It snarled. I tensed up as he pressed harder.

"Okay okay I'll take you!" I cried out, I could feel tears of fear running down my face. Slowly, the prawn let go of me, and I caught a glimpse of him going around the side of the car, and climbing back into the back. For a few seconds I just stood there, in utter disbelief. Then the prawn banged on the side of the car, apparently signaling for me to hurry up. I edged into the car, trying to convince myself that I was just imagining this, that I was hallucinating from my sleep derprivation, but I found myself unable to do so.

Twenty minutes passed. The dim lights on the horizon got brighter, and I arrived at the edge of the Johannesburg.


End file.
